Category: Ducks

Thank you all for attending the 5th Annual Austin Funky Chicken Coop Tour! We had about 1,000 attendees and it was a huge success!

In the upper right corner of this blog, under the page Austin Funky Chicken Coop Tour, you will see some new pages we prepared for the tour. We will continue to add to this throughout the week with pictures and videos.

One of the long-term goals here at BuzzQuack is to get a breeding program in place. Right now, we are experimenting with Swedish Flower Hens and Australian Spotted ducks.

We will likely abandon the Swedish Flower Hen project because keeping a rooster in the city is too difficult. But, we have high hopes for the Australian Spotted duck project. We’ll talk more about Aussies at a later date. Today, we want to talk about breeding for the color blue, which is one of three Aussie colors. Continue reading Blue Genes

A large hawk attacked my Khaki Campbell duck this afternoon. I actually saw it from my bedroom window after the hawk landed on her. It was strange, the hawk was upon her standing upright with her wings wrapped around the duck. I could see the hawk’s head and body that seemed to turn into the duck’s body and feet. Because their feathers were exactly the same color, it took my mind second to understand what my eyes were seeing. Continue reading Hawk Attacks Duck!

Clearly, this is not intended to be a treatise on these subjects, rather, a quick discussion of “pastured” and “pasteurization” as they relate to food. What inspired me was a woman who wanted to buy my backyard eggs. She was very adamant that she was looking for “backyard, pasteurized” eggs. She meant “backyard, pastured-raised” eggs. Because the terms are similar, they can be confusing. Continue reading What’s the Difference Between Pastured and Pasteurization?

Well, a couple of days ago, we discovered duck eggs under the kayak in the backyard. What a fun find! I suspect the oldest ones were only 4 or 5 days old, so they should be just fine. Yesterday, I warmed up the incubator to 101 degrees (ideally I would have warmed to 101.5, but my hygrometer only shows whole numbers) with 60 percent humidity. This should be the perfect start for duck eggs. Continue reading Incubating Duck Eggs

We here at BuzzQuack were delighted to discover out why our ducks suddenly stopped laying shortly after they started again for the season.

Secret stash of duck eggs!

The autumn temperatures became mild, and the ducks were happily laying, and then after a week or so, they stopped. It was frustrating. I had searched the yard for secret nests, but I found none. Until yesterday afternoon. Finally, I tipped over the kayak and nearly fell over when I found NINE duck eggs. Continue reading The Easter Bunny’s Got Nothin’ on my Ducks!

Earlier in the summer, I discovered something in my duck pond. It had been 3 weeks since the last cleaning, so the thing was between 1-day and 3-weeks old. The best way I can describe it, was like some sort of disembodied bladder or something. It was so curious and unidentifiable; I had to call a friend over to examine it with me. It was clearly some sort of internal living tissue at some point, but where did it come from? What was it? It wasn’t otherworldly, but rather oddly internal. Continue reading So a duck, a goose, and a swan walk into a bar one day…